Employee Freedom Week

34% of unionized Connecticut workers would quit their union if they could

EAST HARTFORD – A third of union households in Connecticut say they would opt out of their union if given the chance, according to a new survey conducted on behalf of National Employee Freedom Week and the Yankee Institute. The state-by-state poll results are here: http://www.employeefreedomweek.com/survey-results/

While unionized Connecticut employees are forced to be members of a union because Connecticut is not a Right To Work state, such workers do have the option of becoming agency fee payers instead. Agency fee payers pay only for the non-political parts of union membership, and their lower dues do not go toward funding a union’s political agenda or political activity.

National Employee Freedom Week (NEFW), which runs from June 23 to 29, is a national campaign with 60 partner organizations in 35 states. The purpose of National Employee Freedom Week is to educate union members about their legal rights regarding union membership — and empower them to make the decision about union membership that’s best for them.

“If Connecticut were a Right To Work state, employees would have the right to work without joining a union, and the freedom to leave a union if they wanted to. But even in non-Right To Work states such as Connecticut, employees have the right to become agency fee payers who only pay for the non-political parts of union membership,” said Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute.

“We’re proud to be part of a national effort to educate unionized employees about their rights, including their right to not fund their union’s political activity,” Cullen said.

For more information on National Employee Freedom Week, which is spearheaded by the Nevada Policy Research Initiative and the Association of American Educators, please visit http://EmployeeFreedomWeek.com

2014 Survey Results

National Employee Freedom Week has released a series of scientific surveys to find out how many union members want to leave their union and gauging the public’s support for employee freedom. The results were surprising.

Employee Freedom Week

Over 28 percent of union members stated that they wanted to leave their union. And the public overwhelming supports their right to do so. Over 82 percent of Americans believe union members should be able to leave their union without facing any penalty.

This concept, generally referred to as right to work, received widespread, 50+ percent support in individual states as well, including non-right-to-work states like California, Illinois and New Jersey.

The general surveys are each based on 500-502 respondents and were conducted by Google Consumer Surveys. The poll of union members surveyed 454 union members.

Percent of union members answering "Yes" to the question: "If it were possible to opt out of membership in a labor union without losing your job or any other penalty, would you do it?"

Yes

28.71%

No

71.29%

Location

Percent of survey respondents answering "Yes" to the question: "Should employees have the right to decide, without force or penalty, whether to join or leave a labor union?"